33 Die As Storms Ravage South, East
The long band of storms, including several tornadoes, stretched from Louisiana to Pennsylvania, with Tennessee and Alabama the hardest hit Sunday. The death toll included 16 in Tennessee, 10 in Alabama and five in Ohio. Pennsylvania and Mississippi reported one death each.
One tornado in Ohio blasted apart a theater just minutes after a movie ended.
As the storms moved eastward, tornado warnings were posted Monday morning for sections of Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage. Hundreds lost power in the Carolinas.
Some 45 people were unaccounted-for in the rural Tennessee community of Mossy Grove, officials said. Officials said telephone lines were down and roads were blocked, making it difficult to find people who might be OK.
A tornado cut a swath five to six miles long just before 9 p.m. Sunday, killing at least seven people in the town about 40 miles west of Knoxville. Phone service was out and emergency crews had to rely on ham radio operators for communication.
Authorities were kept away from assessing much of the damage because toppled trees and power lines blocked roadways, and they feared the death toll would rise as daybreak revealed the extent of the devastation.
``It's mass destruction, death,'' said Ken Morgan, an officer in nearby Oliver Springs. ``Mossy Grove is destroyed.''
Carbon Hill, Ala., was in a similar situation as a nighttime swarm of storms belted the area and sent giant hardwood trees crashing down on small houses and mobile homes.
``I reckon about a third of the town is gone,'' said Terry Murray, part of a crew surveying the extent of the damage.
The tornadoes flattened dozens of homes throughout the region and left tens of thousands without power. Wind hit an estimated 140 mph in Tennessee and the storms carried torrential rain and golf-ball-sized hail.
Unseasonably high temperatures Sunday in the 80s, followed by a cold front, made conditions ripe for tornadoes, which are not unusual this time of year, said Gene Rench, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Memphis.
The injured included at least 55 people in Tennessee, 50 in Alabama, 21 in Ohio, about 30 in Mississippi, four in Georgia and two in Pennsylvania, authorities said.
The storms cut a 100-mile swath through northwest Ohio farmland, doing serious damage to the town of Van Wert. Gov. Bob Taft declared a state of emergency Sunday night in Van Wert and Ottawa counties, but the storms caused problems around the state.
Rick McCoy, county EMA director, said he watched two twisters split into four just outside Van Wert.
One of those twisters destroyed the Twin Cinema just minutes after films ended, and two wrecked cars came to rest in the theater where ``Santa Clause 2'' had been showing.
Raymond Moore said his 22-year-old daughter was leaving the theater when she saw the tornado and ran back in. She was one of the customers who were rushed into the lobby and bathrooms, stronger brick parts of the building. ``She watched the roof come right off the building,'' he said.
In Alabama, nine people died in Walker County as a line of thunderstorms packing high winds and spinning off tornadoes rolled through the northern part of the state, said Walker County Deputy Coroner Bob Green.
Another person died in Cherokee County near the Georgia line, said Beverly Daniel, assistant director for emergency management services.
Green was at the scene where the bodies of two women were found: ``They were laying down off the side (of a road),'' he said. ``It was bad. Carbon Hill had a bad time.''
In Tennessee, the tornadoes came in two waves. Late Saturday and early Sunday, twisters skipped across western and middle Tennessee, killing three people. On Sunday night another line of storms crossed the state - this time south and east of Nashville.
Two people, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed and 15 people were injured in Coffee County when two mobile home parks, three houses and a church were damaged near Manchester on Sunday night, Sheriff Steve Graves said.
About an hour later, the tornado ripped through Mossy Grove, damaging at least a dozen houses, said Steven Hamby, director of the Morgan County emergency management center. The dead include a 4-month-old child. Four people were killed in neighboring Cumberland County, officials said.
``Apparently, it just dug a path,'' he said.
At Van Wert, Ohio, Larry Longwell helped hustle about 30 customers into a store basement before a tree slammed into the parking lot.
``I didn't make it to the basement. I was trying to shut that dumb door. All I could see was that pine tree coming at me,'' Longwell said.
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